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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

What are they thinking?

The National Football League prides itself on the strength
of The Shield. Mess with The Shield and trouble will follow.

The Shield represents all that is right with the NFL. Best
football on the planet. Cleanest sport on the planet. No other professional sports
league has prospered more and experienced more success than the NFL.

So why in the world would this highly successful pro sports
enterprise mess around with the men who officiate their games? Why upset the
competitive balance by locking out officials?

That’s exactly what’s happening now less than a month before
the start of the exhibition season. Until a labor agreement is worked out with
the zebras, we can look forward to – well, maybe that’s a poor choice of words
– we will be forced to watch games officiated by relative incompetents.

By using replacement officials, the NFL is asking for more
trouble than it is prepared to handle. It’s bad enough when the men hired by
the league in the first place make mistakes. Imagine how bad it’s going to be
with officials who have never set foot on a professional football field; officials
who have no idea of the speed and quickness of the NFL.

“To take seven officials who have not worked Division I
games or not worked the last several years and put them on the field has got to
be pretty unsettling,” said NFL Referees Association President Scott Green. “Not only to the players and coaches, but to the fans. The
players have plenty of things to worry about on the field. They don’t need to
be worrying about the officials.”

The chaos such a scenario would cause works in the officials’
favor. What’s hard to believe is that the league does not recognize the
potential dangers a continued lockout would have. And should it last into the
regular season, who knows how dangerous it could become?

For a league that has finally begun to realize the
seriousness of concussions and to go to great lengths to reduce and recognize
them, it seems rather strange and unusual it would turn its back on the men who
help control the ferocity of the game.

It will be a situation fraught with all kinds of unhappiness
on a number of levels if we see replacement officials. The players will hate
it. Coaches will hate it. Fans will hate it. Complaining will be a daily
occurrence. Sports talk shows will explode with all kinds of rhetoric.

It’s not as though the officials being locked out are asking
for the moon. All they want is a better contract than the last one they bargained
for in 2007.

The league, however, stands firmly behind the replacement
officials if it should come to that.. “Our goal is to maintain the highest
quality of officiating for our teams, players and fans, including proper
enforcement of the playing rules and management of our games,” the league said
in a prepared statement.

“We are confident that these game officials will enforce
rules relating to player safety. Contrary to NFLRA leadership, we do not
believe players will ‘play dirty’ or intentionally break the rules.”

They are dreaming.

The last time the NFL used replacement officials was the
opening weekend of the 2001 season. It was an unmitigated disaster.

According to one report back then, the Oakland Raiders’ game
at Kansas City “verged on getting out of control” and that replacement
officials “generally were reluctant to call holding penalties in any game.”

Less than two weeks and one game later (after the NFL postponed games the Sunday following 9/11), the regular officials were back after having
struck a deal with the league and order was restored quickly. One would think
the league would have learned its lesson.

Apparently not.

The Shield should no better. Hopefully, cooler and saner
heads will prevail and the league will finally get serious with its officials.
The zebras are subjects of criticism during the season, but we don’t know how
really good they are until replaced by men who have no clue as to how to
control a game on the professional level.

So if the two sides do not reach an agreement, prepare
yourself for some ridiculously bad officiating. It’ll give you a whole new
perspective on the regular guys.

2 comments:

Rich unless you have some numbers to back up your statement where you said "It’s not as though the officials being locked out are asking for the moon. All they want is a better contract than the last one they bargained for in 2007." Then I'm inclined to think they are asking for the moon; because they do know the league had issues without them just prior to 9/11. Also do you know where the 'replacements' are coming from? Are they NCAA officals, Division I-III, High school, or off the street? If the latter please tell me where to apply because I think I could do it. I think they will resolve this prior to the start of the season in September but I don't think the "shield" is the villian here unless you can show that they are?

The reason I didn't put up numbers is because this is an opinion piece rather than a news story. If you want the numbers, they are easily attainable through the Internet.

The replacements, if it ever gets that far, will be from the high school and lower college ranks. Or retired officials. In the 2001season, major college officials worked the one weekend of games.

From what I've read, 120 replacement officials have been selected by the NFL and are now in training. So I guess you're out of luck.

As for The Shield, the fact the league has allowed the situation to get this far out of control will turn out to be embarrassing. If this spills over into the regular season, you judge who the villain is. Fact of the matter is the NFLRA is not trying to rape the league.